


Favorite

by ughdotcom



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies), Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Don't copy to another site, F/F, First Dates, First Kiss, Fluff, Getting Together, Hijinks & Shenanigans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:54:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28222737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ughdotcom/pseuds/ughdotcom
Summary: Nyota is going on a date with Christine! But the problem is that she doesn't know Christine's favorite color. Or flower. Or food. And she wants to make this the best date ever! What shall she do?
Relationships: Christine Chapel/Nyota Uhura, James T. Kirk/Spock, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 13





	Favorite

Nyota Uhura was going to ask out Christine Chapel, she had finally decided. She was done pining for the nurse, it was time to woman up and do something about it.

She slid into the seat next to Christine, who looked up with a grin. “Hi, Nyota!”

“Hey Christine! I was wondering if you would want to go out with me?” Nyota felt blood rush to her face as she fidgeted with the hem of her uniform, but Christine’s smile just widened.

“I’d love to! When?”

“I know it’s in two weeks, but I was thinking next shore leave?”

“That sounds perfect! What will we do?”

“I haven’t decided yet, but I was thinking maybe a picnic? Hecate IV has dazzling sunsets, and I’ve heard it has wonderful parks. It sounds perfect for a picnic.”

“That sounds amazing, Nyota! I can’t wait!” Christine stood up, pressing a kiss to Nyota’s cheek before leaving the mess hall. Nyota watched her go with a smile on her face, hand pressed to the place Christine had left a kiss.

Then she realized something. She didn’t know some of the basics about Christine, like the woman’s favorite color, or flowers. In Nyota’s defense, most of her conversations with Christine were deeper, and less artificial, as they have to be when you’re going to be stuck on the same ship as them for five years, and you’re the women that spend the most time with the senior staff.

But those weren’t exactly questions you asked someone you were already going on a date with, so Nyota would have to find out some other way. Time to get advice from the most logical man on the ship, and her best friend.

She waited till Spock was off shift and she knew that Jim wasn’t with him, and she went to his quarters and rang the buzzer. Spock answered the door and let her in. She sat down on his bed across from him.

“I asked Christine out.” she said, and Spock looked at her with what she knew was his way of smiling, the sparkle in his eyes.

“Excellent. What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to take her for a picnic when we go on shore leave on Hecate IV. But there’s the problem. I don’t know specifics like her favorite color, or her favorite flower, or favorite food, and I want to make this the best date she’s ever been on!” Nyota complained.

“You could always ask her.”

“I can’t! I should already know these things! Normally people know these things about people they ask out.”

“You could always find a way to have her tell you, but you would have to be careful not to lie to her. It isn’t conducive to a good relationship when you lie.”

“Of course. Thank you, Spock.”

“You are always welcome, Nyota, you know this.”

“I know. See you around, Spock. You still owe me a sleepover.” Nyota smiled before leaving Spock’s quarters. Time to figure out Christine.

Her first plan was to figure out Christine’s favorite color. And then she got the PADD message from her Grandmama and her plan popped into her head.

“Hey Christine?” she asked the next day at lunch.

“Yeah?”

“My grandmama wants to sew me a dress, and I was wondering what colors you liked?”

“Oh don’t worry about what colors I like! You should get colors you look good in! Like red. Or yellow. Warm colors are what look good on you, really. What style is it?”

“I don’t know yet. Grandmama always wants it to be a surprise.”

“Well, get a warm color. They look so beautiful on you.”

Nyota felt so happy at the compliment, especially the fact it came from Christine, that she forgot what she had even been looking for from the conversation till she was back at her quarters.

“God.” she groaned. So that idea was off the table. Next idea? Who knows. Her nail polish was chipping. Maybe that was a good way to tell her.

“Hey, Christine, I was wondering if you wanted to come do your nails with me? I noticed my polish was chipping, and I thought it would be a good way to spend time with you. If you want to, meet me at 1800.” She left a message on Christine’s communicator.

She was happy when Christine showed up at the time, and she spread out her bottles of nail polish between where the two were sitting on the floor.

“What color do you want?” she asked.

“I was thinking we could do matching nails? Some sort of pattern that would go well with both our outfits.”

“What colors?” Nyota said, thrilled at the prospect of having matching nails with Christine.

The blonde reached out and chose a few different bottles: blue, red, and yellow. “I was thinking of a yellow background, with red and blue stripes through the middle.”

“That sounds nice! I do yours, you do mine?”

“Of course.” Christine swooped up Nyota’s hand and started, and Nyota basked in the feel of their hands touching.

It wasn’t until Nyota was lying back in her bed, studying her nails, that she realized that she had failed again.

She temporarily gave up on figuring out Christine’s favorite color. If worse came to worst she could always ask Leonard. The man worked with Christine everyday, he ought to know. She ignored the fact that she had known Christine for almost as long and she didn’t know.

On to favorite flowers. This was important, because Nyota needed to get Christine the right type of flowers for the date, nothing that Christine hated.

“Hey, Spock is thinking of getting Jim a bouquet because he thinks he isn’t being romantic enough. What flowers do you think are romantic?” Nyota asked Christine the next time she saw her.

“Jim’s favorites are Dahlia’s.” Christine said. “Well, besides sunflowers. I heard him talking to Leonard about what he would garden once Sulu was willing to let people garden in the greenhouse labs. Dahlia’s should be good for a bouquet.”

“Thanks, Christine.”

“But tell Spock that Jim thinks that he’s the best boyfriend ever, flowers or no. You hear a lot when you work with Leonard.”

“Thanks, babe.” Nyota said, pressing a kiss to Christine’s cheek before leaving. She didn’t realize what she did until she left the mess hall, where she grinned and walked to the turbolift with a skip in her step. When she was going up to the bridge she realized she still didn’t know Christine’s favorite flower.

“Get Jim a bouquet of dahlias.” She recommended to Spock when they saw each other alone the next time.

Hikaru gave her the next option, when he took over the sound speakers and said “seeing how shore leave, or what we like to call it, date night extraordinaire, is coming up, all flowers are free as long as you compliment Pavel on his next invention. That is all. Captain is coming and this was not an authorized announcement.”

Nyota watched Christine laugh with stars in her eyes and smiled lovingly until she realized that this was a good way to figure out Christine’s favorite flower.

“Are you going to take advantage of this?” she asked.

“Maybe get some flowers to brighten up the sickbay. Maybe some of the blue roses that Sulu’s been bragging about. They’d match the clothes. You?”

“Maybe some to brighten up my room.”

“Why would you need to brighten it up? It already houses you.” Christine smiled a dazzling smile and skipped away.

“I would die for her.” Nyota muttered as she watched her retreat. “And I still don’t know her favorite flower. Damn.”

Well, roses were always romantic, so Nyota moved on to favorite food. This one shouldn’t be too hard, right? It couldn’t be.

“You know what I miss?” Nyota said when they next ate dinner together. “Good soup. The replicators can make soup, but not good soup. It’s always too thick or thin, too hot or cold. What do you miss?”

“Well,” Christine laughed, “The replicators always make my favorite dish perfectly, so I’d have to say I miss my mom’s bread. The replicators can’t beat the feeling of fresh out of the oven bread, made by loving hands.”

“Why is yours so much sweeter than mine?” Nyota jokingly complained.

“Oh, I don’t know. Yours is sweetened by those lips.”

“Stop.” Nyota said, feeling her face warm. “Stop flustering me. You’re too good at it, it’s scary.”

Christine laughed again. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“It is.” Nyota confirmed, and, once again, she was in her room when she realized she had messed up again.

She couldn’t think for the life of her why she didn’t know these things, and why it was so hard to find them out. It shouldn’t be that hard, it was just color, flowers, and food, but Christine cared so much more about other people and their relationship, and not about herself. Fuck Christine for being so selfless and kind. It made it so much harder. If Christine had just cared a little more about herself, then maybe it wouldn’t be so hard to figure out things about her, simple things. Instead she knew which charities Christine supported, which diseases made her cry, what she wished the science people on the ship would stop always talking about during casual conversation, what Christine’s mom had sent her.

Maybe that was the best thing, knowing these things about Christine, knowing who she really was. How close that made them. But there were only a few days left until shore leave, and Nyota still didn’t know what to do.

The doorbell rang, and Nyota groaned and stayed lying down for a few seconds before getting up to answer it. No one was at the door, but a note was lying on the ground. Nyota picked it up. It was written in familiar loopy handwriting, that Nyota could almost place, but not quite. It read:

Christine facts, since you need them:

Favorite color: light pink and light blue

Favorite flowers: lilies and daffodils

Favorite dish: spaghetti (remember: she’s a vegetarian)

Next time just ask.

Nyota smiled down at the note. She mentally thanked whoever had left it for their saving grace. Maybe this wouldn’t be too hard.

The first step was getting a picnic blanket. The replicator had a setting for a picnic blanket, but it wasn’t customizable into anything but the classic red and white, so she asked Scotty for help. He owed her a favor, because she had smuggled him some actual alcohol, so he was happy to help her. The picnic blanket was blue and pink. The basket was a normal basket.

Next, Nyota got some flowers from Hikaru. He was happy to help, and Pavel helped her arrange a bouquet with them that looked pretty. Nyota set them in a vase in her room.

The food was harder. Nyota wasn’t a good cook, but she didn’t want to just replicate the food, because it felt informal and insensitive. So she enlisted Jim.

She and Jim had a tentative friendship, mainly held together by their love for Spock. But Jim was the best cook she knew, so it had to be him.

They got together in the morning of shore leave day, because the  _ Enterprise _ wouldn’t be stopping till evening, and Jim wasn’t needed on the bridge till then. He let her take over making the pasta, while he baked bread.

“I’m making two kinds.” he told her. “Garlic and regular. Both should go well with the pasta.”

Nyota smiled and continued working on the spaghetti. While the noodles boiled she tossed together a salad, something she knew she could do.

“What do you want to do for dessert?” Jim asked as the bread baked. “Something that’s good, but that isn’t elaborate, because it’s a picnic. I’d say something Italian, but I remember Christine saying she doesn’t like cannoli or tiramisu.”

“No, I know that. She doesn’t like coffee or ricotta.”

“You knew that, but not her favorite food.”

“What’s Spock’s favorite food?”

“Plomeek soup but only when it’s made by Amanda. He can’t stand it from anyone else. Otherwise it’s that certain type of salad.”

“Hm. Maybe you are smart. How long did that take you to find out?”

Jim crossed his arms and frowned. “He’s a Vulcan. Christine is a human, and she loves to talk.”

“Keep telling yourself that.” Nyota said, patting his arm. “So, I was thinking maybe cupcakes, chocolate ones?”

“Sure. Shouldn’t be too hard.”

They worked together to make the cupcakes and when they were done they stacked the food into the picnic basket with the blanket and a bottle of sparkling lemonade.

Nyota shooed Jim out of her room and faced the closet. She didn’t have any specific plans on what to wear, but she had an idea of the dress code. Pretty, good for a date, but casual. It didn’t need to be fancy. She pulled out a dress she hadn’t worn in a while.

It was a simple yellow dress, with an asymmetrical neckline. It cinched in at the waist and had a long skirt with a slit in the side. It was covered in red roses. She didn’t just choose the yellow because she remembered Christine saying she’d look beautiful in it, but she wouldn’t deny that it didn’t play a factor. She kept her hair as it was normally, and she brushed on gold eyeliner and blush, pulled on some black flats, and grabbed the picnic basket, ready to go.

She met Christine at the transporters. The nurse was dressed in a light pink dress, with a short a-line skirt and a neckline that folded over and was wavy. She grinned at Nyota, and they joined hands and stepped onto the transporter pad.

They were beamed into the city square, and they walked the short distance over to the park. They found a grassy spot overlooking the lake, and Nyota laid out the blanket and pulled out the flowers, handing them to Christine, who set them gently aside.

Nyota set out the food, and poured the sparkling lemonade.

“I remembered that you didn’t like alcohol, synthetic or not.” she said.

“Thank you.”

Nyota decided to own up. “I couldn’t remember your favorites, so I tried to find out. I didn’t do a very good job.”

“Oh, I know. You weren’t very good at hiding it! Normally we have nice conversations, but you were just asking about my favorite things. It wasn’t hard to figure it out. I left you the note, by the way. You could have just asked.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry.” Nyota said. “I should have.”

“Don’t worry.” Christine leaned in and rested against Nyota’s shoulder. “I found it sweet.” she took a bite of the pasta “And the food is amazing. Did you make it?”

“I made the pasta and salad, Jim made the bread, and we both worked on the cupcakes.”

“Well, you made my favorite part, so technically you did make it.” Christine smiled. “I’m so happy to be here. I really like you.”

Nyota threaded her hand into Christine’s. “I really like you too. I’m glad you agreed to come.”

“I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.”

“Do you want to be my girlfriend?”

Christine giggled and blushed. “I would love to.” she said, pressing a kiss to Nyota’s lips.

Nyota grinned, and they sat there, sharing the food, laughing and talking, until the sun started to set along the lake. They both looked over, leaning against each other, watching the brilliant colors fade into dark, and as the stars started to come out.

A meteor passed along the sky, and Nyota smiled. “Make a wish.” she said.

“Why would I need to?” Christine asked. “You’re right here.”

Nyota smiled and kissed Christine deeply, and the two women sat in the park, food half eaten, kissing like it was their life force.

“We should probably eat.” Christine said when they finally broke apart. “Since you went to all this trouble.”

Nyota smiled. “We should. Do you want to go on a walk after this?”

“I would love to.”

**Author's Note:**

> The dresses:  
> https://dupsies.com/Dstore/yellow-african-print-ankara-dress-dp4201-p-8699.html?tjid=0130837625490db6d22a9b5b3fc2fd11  
> https://www.pinterest.com/pin/660621839071327361/


End file.
